Are RFID Passports Really Safe?

Filed in archive Privacy and Security on July 10, 2006

If this piece of information on granneman is to be believed then one should avoid using RFID passports. All RFID passports contain personal details which can be read by a machine at the airport but the state department has refused to encrypt the information embedded in the chip as it requires complicated technology and it is quite difficult to coordinate with other countries so there are chances that the details could be read by a skimmer as far as thirty feet away. Even the details of the Paris Hilton's phone which uses the same kind of RFID chip were skimmed and revealed to the public last year. When celebrities are not able to protect themselves against being skimmed what about the public? It is very much possible that unsocial elements would be able to choose their targets quite easily.

Here it seems that the need to occupy personal information is more important than giving adequate protection to the people.